Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group

The vanguard and the people it serves

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group is working with local health partners to develop and improve local urgent and emergency health and care services.

As a part of the vanguard programme, the partners will accelerate improvements already underway and implement a best practice model for urgent care services. In particular, the vanguard aims to address variations in access to services and health inequalities in the region.

The partners include:

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Hinchingbrooke Health Care Trust

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust

Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Herts Urgent Care

Urgent Care Cambridge

East of England Ambulance Trust

Cambridgeshire County Council

Peterborough City Council

Cambridgeshire Crisis Care Concordat Board

voluntary and community sector organisations.

Together they serve a population of 922,000.

What is changing?

Local urgent and emergency health services will provide safer, faster and better care for patients.

The programme partners will change the way they work together to join up an often confusing range of A&E, GP services, minor injuries clinics, ambulance services, community services and the NHS 111 non-emergency number so that patients know where they can get urgent help easily and effectively, seven days a week.

This will include providing a 24/7 mental health crisis care service within the community that patients can access directly without needing a referral.

This work will be supported by the national team, which is helping the vanguard develop better joined-up commissioning (purchasing) and service delivery.

Plans include putting in place the right people to deliver the changes, including GPs, nurses, occupational and physical therapists, community pharmacists and other staff equipped to meet various mental and physical health needs.

The programme, which is being led by clinicians, is split into five workstreams:

NHS 111/out of hours clinical hub

Admission avoidance/community access

In-hospital emergency care

Post hospital discharge

Mental health

Key benefits

Hospital, community, mental health and social care services to work more closely together to provide patients with safer, faster, and better care seven days a week

Care will be delivered in, or as close as possible to, people’s homes

Patients will be treated in centres with the very best expertise and facilities in order to maximise their chances of survival and a good recovery.

Contact Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group

Case studies

1. Improved access to mental health crisis support

A new scheme is offering a crisis response to people referred to mental health services as an emergency, including out-of-hours support.

Elaine Young, project lead at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust, said: “We know that people in mental health crisis often end up at A&E because there isn’t an alternative out-of-hours service. We already provide support in acute hospitals and police stations but this pilot will mean that we can look at further ways of improving urgent and emergency treatment.”

The pilot includes:

A first response coordinator and practitioner – specialists who provide mental health assessments in the community out-of-hours;

Enhanced support in Addenbrooke’s Hospital for people in mental health crisis from 8am to 1am every day;

A ‘safe place’ run by the voluntary sector offering short-term support for people in crisis;

A new mental health team in the police control room to offer advice and guidance to officers; and

An improved crisis service for children and young people.

A service user who was supported before the pilot launched said: “In my experience, being admitted to the psychiatric hospital during an acute crisis often led to those episodes lasting longer. I feel if I’d had access to appropriate support and safe spaces in the build-up to, and during, my crisis I would have been able to avoid things escalating to the point where I needed emergency services. I would have felt more in control and more confident about managing my own mental health.”

Supporting people in a mental health crisis in the community will help reduce the numbers of people going to A&E when they could have received appropriate care elsewhere.